Fuerzabruta’s magic is the power of dance music

Fuerzabruta’s magic is the power of dance music

6 January, 2010 | 12.08PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: dj charts, fuerzabruta, new york

It was on December 26th 2009, off a wet and unusually quiet Manhattan street, that I witnessed the true power of dance music. It was not a club or a party, but a DJ did spin, to a group of people that could be found in most living rooms that night after Christmas.

A dozy grandfather, a moody-faced teenager, a mother, with her arms folded, frowning at her two squabbling kids and husband who dragged her away from the sofa to participate in the “fun”. The whole family was there.

They were not allowed to sit, told where to stand, and blasted with auditory stimuli - melodic techno and percussive tech house to you and me - whilst trapped in a room filled with smoke and moving darkness.

Blinded by lights, squirted with water, the lucky ones had a block of polystyrene smashed over their heads. And they each paid up to $75 to be there.

What evil genius could create such madness? Argentinean Diqui James directs the off-Broadway show known as Fuerzabruta, or Brute Force in Spanish. His semi-collaborative show, which runs at the Daryl Roth Theater in Flatiron, is designed to take the audience - who all too often in New York are a stiff, disassociated lot - to the edge of uninhibited pandemonium in just 70 minutes.

Like a long night of rave condensed into a series of mini dancefloor peaks, the show felt instantly familiar to club kids and DJs. Above the room, a jock mixed driving techno grooves, bubbled basslines, and etheral vocals continuously throughout, beat synced to movement, performance, and lighting effects.

It began, as all club nights do, with the audience standing in a room as individuals, in twos or threes, alone, wondering what comes next. Warm electronic grooves caused the occasional toe to tap and heads turned as lights revealed different corners of the crowd. Mum looked confused. Dad did a little shimmy as the bass dropped off a glitch-filled breakdown. His kids rolled their eyes.

Then the show really began. A man in a white suit aimlessly walked on a giant treadmill that was wheeled into the middle of the room by hidden stage hands. The stroll turned into a trot. The trot into a hopeless run. He got shot, blood ran down his shirt, and he fell to the ground. The audience applauded, which would be disturbing was it not for the quite obvious meaning of the execution, lost on some theatre critics.

As the protagonist rose to walk once more, this time dodging other commuters as he smashed his way through walls of cardboard and confetti, desperately clinging to a table and chairs, it was clear that this was the disaffected city, daily trudge, and meaningless rat race.

It is a feeling, probably all too familiar with Manhattanites, who applauded because they most likely will its destruction.

The creators of Fuerzabruta fought the greed and fear of the city, with much more basic instincts - our natural response to light and sound, all played out through our animalistic urges.

With dream-like performances and acrobatic set pieces - at one point an entire ceiling of water saw mermaids splash inches from faces and fingers - the audience gaped with awe and wonder.

Latino drums and kicking techno rhythms, mainly produced by relative unknown Gaby Kerpal, built the energy of the crowd throughout the show and before too long the scolds were replaced with smiles and dancing.

The communal feeling at one point reached fever pitch via a play straight out of the DC10 Ibiza book, as performers forced the entire audience to crouch down during a lengthy build up, before the crowd jumped skywards harmoniously with the music.

It ended in a debauched celebration, with the whole crowd sprayed with water and confetti, as they danced for no other reason than because it felt good. It was a clubbing experience. The weekend fix we all know so well was played out ceremoniously for those who had never, or will ever, experience it. Minds opened, faces and bodies relaxed, and people surprised themselves.

They came to see a spectacle, and left with the realisation that they themselves have inside, the capacity for change and inspiration. There’s a show inside each and every one of us, soppy as it sounds.

That is the power of dance music, and the magic of Fuerzabruta. And it’s about as much fun as you can have sober in New York in 70 minutes.

Music inspired by Fuerzabruta

The majority of Fuerzabruta’s techno and drum-heavy house grooves were created by Gaby Kerpal and are not available to the public, but in order to give a full flavour of how the show sounded I put together the chart below which includes some tracks that were played during the show, as well as music that is inspired by the sounds I heard. Deep techno, dark melodies, and Latino rhythms mainly made up the 70 minutes, and it was intricately programmed throughout.

Video: Fuerzabruta Official Trailer

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